


just over the horizon

by doctorkaitlyn



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Episode Related, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Missing Scene, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 01:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14462175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorkaitlyn/pseuds/doctorkaitlyn
Summary: After he gets off the phone with Helen, Ryan manages to get half an hour of uninterrupted sleep before his eyes shoot open again.





	just over the horizon

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for prompt roulette over at the bfu writer's discord - one of the prompts this week was 'sunrise', so here we are!
> 
> takes place during the Waverly Hills episode. the polyamory is more of a v-shaped relationship than anything.
> 
> August 2018 update: I've removed most of Helen's tags due to a fact that Bee pointed out (i.e., that if you google Helen's name, her tag with Ryan is the fourth result)!

After he gets off the phone with Helen, Ryan manages to get half an hour of uninterrupted sleep before his eyes shoot open again.

Aside from the wind coming through the gaping holes where windows once resided and Shane’s soft snores a few feet on his right, the building is quiet. The room is a little lighter than it was when he fell asleep; it’s still plenty dark, but the oil-slick blackness has faded away in favor of dark gray, the precursor to actual morning light. Steeling himself, Ryan squints into the remaining darkness and casts his gaze around the room. There’s nothing he can see lingering in the corners or out in the corridor, no shifting shadows or blurry forms.

Still, the hair on the back of his neck is sticking up, and it _feels_ like something is watching him, hidden just out of his sight, toying with him, maybe waiting for him to drift off again.

That thought is enough to make him decide that he’s officially done sleeping for the night.

For a moment, he thinks about shaking Shane awake so that they can pack up early, but as he slides out of his sleeping bag and shivers at the sudden lack of warmth, he decides against it. He doesn’t know how in the fuck Shane manages to sleep so well in these places, but at least one of them should be well-rested for the drive to the airport.

Grabbing his phone, he pulls on another sweater from his bag and heads out the door at the back of the room, which leads out onto the massive, leaf and dirt strewn balcony. In the back of his mind, he can still hear the story of Tina telling them about someone jumping (or maybe being pushed) off to their death, so he stays far back from the concrete ledge and settles back against the rough wall. It’s not even five o’clock yet; out on the West Coast, Helen probably just fell asleep, and he doesn’t want to wake her up with a text, so he scrolls through his notifications, answers some emails, checks Twitter and shivers when the wind slices through his layers.

At the very least, the feeling that he’s being watched has dissipated.

The next time he glances up, the sky is considerably lighter. At the horizon, the deep blue has faded into the lightest of oranges, a precursor to the explosion of sun that’s going to appear shortly. He can actually make out details of the surrounding environment; the town off in the distance, the ribbon of road snaking up the hillside, the hundreds of trees swaying in the ever-present wind.

It seems strange, that such a beautiful landscape could surround what is basically hell on earth, but if there’s one thing he’s learned on these escapades, it’s that beauty and darkness are all too often tied together.

Before he can fall too deeply down that particular rabbit hole, the sound of shuffling footsteps breaks through his thoughts. For a fraction of a second, pure terror goes shooting up his spine, but then the footsteps are punctuated by a loud yawn.

“You did it, buddy.” Shane’s voice is thick with sleep, and his dark eyes are bleary behind his glasses, which are halfway down his nose. “Really thought you were gonna run out the front door.”

“That happened _once_.” Shane mutters something totally indecipherable, wraps his arms around Ryan’s waist and presses his face into the top of Ryan’s head. The ridge of his glasses is a little uncomfortable where it’s digging into Ryan’s scalp, but he leans back into the contact and lets his tired eyes fall closed for a moment. Shane’s almost impossibly warm, and his body heat seems to sink into every place Ryan is cold, quell the goosebumps popping up on his skin.

“Do you wanna pack up soon?” Shane mumbles, one thumb dragging along Ryan’s hip. “Could get some footage for the outro before everyone comes back.”

What Ryan would really like to do is go back to sleep, preferably in a warm bed, with Shane curved around him, but since that’s not quite possible at the moment, he settles for the next best thing.

“In a bit,” he replies, slowly opening his eyes. On the horizon, he can see the barest sliver of the sun peering above the edge, like a fish breaking the surface of the sea. “I don’t want to move yet.”

Shane nods, nose dragging through Ryan’s hair.

“Me neither.”

(Later that morning, once they’ve finished packing and are waiting around for the crew to show up, Ryan manages to catch a picture of Shane standing out on the balcony with his arms crossed on the ledge, the sun striking his face, illuminating every messy strand of hair and smudge on his glasses.

He sends it to Helen with the caption _maybe this place isn’t so horrible after all._

She responds with a heart emoji, followed by the words _remember that when Timmy follows you home._

Even though the sun is fully up, it takes every ounce of willpower he has to not bolt through the hellish hallways and straight out the front door.)

**Author's Note:**

> as always, I can be found on [tumblr.](http://banshee-cheekbones.tumblr.com/) :)


End file.
